In today's society, it is becoming increasingly important for entities to accurately confirm the identity of individuals. This is made clear especially in three areas of challenge to current society: 1) the passage and maintenance of health care records; 2) the problem of identity theft to criminals and loss of control of identity in reference to other individuals or entities in society; and 3) security issues of national protection as required by certain functions (e.g., such as opening a bank account must now be monitored).
In general, society currently relies on the confirmation of individuals through witnesses, identity cards, identity codes, and biometric identifiers. For example, a witness, (e.g., anyone from a casual acquaintance to a notary public) can confirm a person's identity. Also, identity cards and personal identification codes are utilized to authenticate an individual's identity. This system, however, is expensive and corruptible. Recognizing these deficiencies, attempts have been made to improve the situation.
One example of a present identification system is a computer system that remotely records the arrival and departure times of field-based employees at various work sites through a telephone network. Specifically, the system detects an employee's automatic number identification data and further collects personal identification codes from the caller. The automatic number identification and personal identification code are used to identify the calling telephone. Once identified, the system can record the arrival and departure times of the employee.
These systems have several disadvantages. First, automatic number identification (i.e. “Caller ID”) only indicates the telephone number of the particular telephone used to make the call. Automatic number identification information therefore does not affirmatively confirm the identity of an individual—only the location from which the individual is placing a telephone call. Similarly, personal identification codes are manually entered into a keypad by any individual and are therefore not reliable for confirming the identity of an individual. More specifically, mere receipt of a manually entered personal identification code does not assure that the person entering the personal identification code is the person assigned to the personal identification code.
Because these above systems are expensive, time consuming, or subject to misuse and abuse, biometric devices were created for use in identification and authorization. Generally, measurable and recordable body features (e.g., fingerprints, eye patterns, facial contours, or voice characteristics, etc.) are registered as biometric keys and, at the time of authentication, compared with the respective body features of a person to be authenticated.
A personal computer (“PC”) can be equipped with a device (e.g., a video camera) that makes it possible for the PC to record biometric information (e.g., facial features) and to reuse the information at a later time for authenticating an individual. The PC could grant access to a user only if it confirms the identity of the user by recognizing his or her facial features.
In any event, the above identification systems are currently used only on an ad hoc basis and are not connected to any national database. Furthermore, if a national database were implemented according to today's technology, the holder of the end data would not only have the individual's acquired data, but also the individual's unique identification information. Such systems do not protect the individual from fraud and abuse. Such systems cannot be currently regulated by US law to protect the identity of the individual from being passed to other entities. Over time the independence of the individual would be lost. In addition, they are also subject to fraud and abuse if implemented without a secured input device.
There currently exists a need for a national or international system that would allow authentication of an individual at any given time and location while at the same time protecting the individual from loss of identity. On 27 Apr. 2004, President Bush called for the majority of Americans to have interoperable electronic health records within ten years. David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released his report, “The Decade of Health Information Technology: Delivering Consumer-centric and Information-rich Health Care,” on 21 Jul. 2004. In the report he calls for four goals in the strategic framework: 1) Informed Clinical Practice; 2) Interconnected Clinicians; 3) Personalized Care; and 4) Improved Population Health.
“The Uniting and Strengthening of America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Interrupt and Obstruct Terrorism” (USA Patriot Act) Act of 2001 (H.R. 3162-24 Oct. 2001) requires, among other things, the identification and verification by all financial institutions of accountholders and prospective accountholders (See, §326). Not only must an accountholder be identified and verified, records related to the accountholder, at a minimum name, address and other identifying information, must be maintained. In other words, a secure database is required.
Databases have been utilized for a number of years to store, sort and distribute information. Specifically, in the medical field, databases have been utilized to diagnose and treat patient diseases. David Bennahum illustrates the long known need for medical interconnectivity in an article entitled “Docs for Docs” in Wired Magazine in June 1995. He notes that doctors have been attempting to create a “virtual patient record” for years. Essentially, with the emergence of more efficient wireless networks, it was possible to link doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and drug labs. As a result, doctors were able to record instructions, maintain medical information and receive general medical information from insurance companies and drug labs over a wireless network connecting several databases. Unfortunately, the system of interconnectivity has never occurred because the current system of authentication and security of the information electronically can not be secured in a timely, inexpensive manner that will not allow the possibility of identity loss.
There exists a need for a system that positively authenticates an individual and that is connected to a database for immediate retrieval of an individual's medical information. More specifically, patients visiting such places as doctor's offices, dentist's offices and hospitals often need to complete forms they have completed in the past. A system that positively identifies an individual and that retrieves all pertinent information about the individual (e.g., name, insurance carrier, etc.) is greatly desired provided identity loss cannot occur.
There exists a need for a secured system that allows an employee, client, patient, subject or citizen to interface with an organization, business, individual, or government agency when a positive identification for a form to be completed is required. Such form collections, authorizations, verifications and organization are increasingly costly and difficult to manage in a secure fashion. As more and more human abstract thought and information leaves the confines of the visible universe and enters the electronic “fifth dimension” in an ever growing world that occupies neither space nor time, where information about every individual can, as an electron around an atom, be every where and no where at the same time, it is important in the preservation of liberty that each individual's fifth dimension of abstract thought and information be protected and preserved as his or her own.